Saturday, January 22, 2011

Piracy

Folks, I need every cent I get from my writing. I am the sole provider of my household. Please don't download my books for free. I truly don't understand why people think I should not get paid for my work.

Aren't you paid for yours?

This post is in response to the daily notices I get of torrents for my work. I honestly don't have the time to try and take down torrents on European Servers. And, really, if the piracy gets too large, I'll simply be dropped by my publishers. I'm not joking.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Switching Worlds

I know I've spoken of this before, but changing worlds is difficult for me, and it's something I need to learn to do. Maybe mornings are contemporary Colorado and Luna books, and afternoons are the Heart books.

Anyway, in the last week I've been in present day Denver with Amber and Rafe and brownies; 419 after colonization Celta with Laev and Camellia and crew; and 412 after colonization with Walker Clover and Sedwy Grove. Timelines and calendars help, and Walker's story is Yule and Laev's is May, so that's good, too.

I have figured out that I need a complete day off at least every 8 days, that my writing muscle is developing stronger since NaNoWriMo, and occasionally I need to take the laptop out of the house.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Nearly Missing -- Mostly Action

It's been a busy week. I was asked to forward the first two (revised) chapters of Enchanted Again, which, of course, I hadn't gone back and revised. I spent one full day at critique. I'm housesitting again, it snowed in Denver, and I got sick for a night and a day.

Thus the absence. OTOH my first three chapters of Noble Heart are solid, my first chapter of Enchanted Again is the best writing I'm capable of, and the second chapter is, I hope, interesting.

Friday, January 14, 2011

The FirstFamilies, of course, are from the Ogham alphabet. In fact, the book that is the basis of my research is: The Celtic Tree Oracle, A System of Divination. That's what I reach for first when my memory needs refreshing about something.

Otherwise, as I believe I've stated, I use the Herbal Tarot, and Scott Cunningham's and Culpeper's books on herbs, and some herbal books published by Rodale Books...

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Heart Search

In a show of complete editorial speed, my editor has finished reading Heart Search. She had a comment about a subplot which I thought about and will fix, but the book has gone into production, i.e. submitted to the copy editor.

Saturday, January 08, 2011

Onward to Hearts & Swords!

Well, I'm up and the sky is a-dawning. Gray. I am not good on gray days. I have new, in-person critique group tomorrow and need to read some submissions.

Right now, I am contemplating chapter 2 and chapter 3 of Noble Heart, (Walker Clover's story in the collection), that happen to be an older and newer edition of the same chapter. Sigh. Obviously there is a file somewhere that starts after chapter 2. I looked last night but couldn't find it...

Anyway, I also need to go downstairs to one of the chairs in the dining room where I left last month's critique of Chapter 2 of Noble Heart. I thought it would be better not to get it mixed in with the multitude of pages of Heart Search.

I have my own printout (landscape 2 pages to page so it looks more like a book), beta reader's printout, and occasional critique chapters of Heart Search. I'm keeping them until I'm done with the copy edits.

Friday, January 07, 2011

Work and Rewards

I have turned in Heart Search.
Below is my record of my work this week. As you can see, the day I finished the rough is full of stickers because I like to see it at a glance when I flip through my journal/calendar.
Rewards: Stickers for each day I work. NOW I get to take a bath with the packet of bath salts I got as a gift. I get to eat leftover chile relleno for lunch (restaurant), and I get to eat the LAST holiday cookie. ;)

I'll rest a bit, then open up Hearts & Swords which is due at the end of the month ;).

Maybe tea at a shop today. ;) But not Darjeeling's Tearoom or Darjeeling's HouseHeart (heroine Camellia's tea rooms). Too bad, I loved making them up.

Sunday, January 02, 2011

HEART SEARCH IS FINISHED!

At some time every book is the one you don't think you'll finish. But I really believe that Heart Search was harder than most. One reason is that I was dealing with some very heavy issues in 2010 (I was never so glad to see a year end in my life).

Another reason is that I gutted the first 14 chapters and rewrote them.

There are probably other reasons/excuses/rationalizations as to why it took me so long to finish, but I'm tired and giddy, so I don't recall them.

And, yes, for the first time in a long while I am giddy that I finished.